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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22782310">Accounting for Flowers</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/INeedMoreHadesBeforeISwoon/pseuds/INeedMoreHadesBeforeISwoon'>INeedMoreHadesBeforeISwoon</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Ancient Greek Religion &amp; Lore, Punderworld (Webcomic)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Accountant Hades, Alternate Universe, F/F, F/M, Falling In Love, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Human AU, Landscaper Persephone, Puns &amp; Word Play</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-02-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-02-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 06:08:19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,883</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22782310</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/INeedMoreHadesBeforeISwoon/pseuds/INeedMoreHadesBeforeISwoon</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Human AU for Punderworld, by Request!</p><p>Wherein Hades is an accountant, and Persephone owns a Landscaping company. This is their first meeting....</p><p>And it's punny as hell....</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Aidoneus/Persephone (Ancient Greek Religion &amp; Lore), Hades/Persephone (Punderworld)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>35</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Accounting for Flowers</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/EllisEmme_Writes/gifts">EllisEmme_Writes</a>.</li>



    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This is entirely fluff, I promise. Enjoy!</p><p>Characters and design of such are borrowed from Linda Sigeel, from her creation, Punderworld (webtoon). </p><p>Credit for the idea for this specific fic goes to Ellis, and credit for suggestions on a few of the puns goes to Inconstancy....</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Yes, I fully understand. Yes, of course I’d be willing to…. I sympathize entirely, I can imagine that must be frustrating, but we <em>are</em> open throughout the year, not just during the tax preparation months…. I am in the office from nine to six Mondays through Fridays, after hours by appointment…. Yes, I do have an availability then. I have you down, thank you…. Have a good day.”</p><p>
  <em>Criminy….</em>
</p><p>
  <em>You know what’s coming, every year. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>And yet, you still box all those receipts, in the basement, and….</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Of <strong>course</strong> a stray cat has kittens in the box….</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Fine. It’s done, Hades; done and over with. That’s not even the big one today….</em>
</p><p>He spun his office chair around, his long legs unfolding as he rocked onto his feet. His pointed-toe loafers creaked slightly as he moved over the thinly-carpeted floor, heading for the file-box he’d pulled out when he arrived that morning. The thick binder was sitting on top of the closed lid, and the long fingers of his left hand closed around the crinkled-vinyl spine of the thing as his right hand pushed his glasses slightly up the bridge of his nose.</p><p>His attention was snagged by his reflection in the mirror over the water cooler as he made his way back to his desk. Leaning as far as he could, he dropped the massive binder to the granite-esque top of the table and then began adjusting his tie and collar. His black dress shirt was only a little rumpled along his ribs, from sitting for the past hour finishing up those few phone calls so he’d be free for this meeting. He tugged and jerked, smoothing his hands down the front panels and making sure his glasses’ case was still tucked neatly away in his breast pocket.</p><p>Satisfied that he was as presentable as he could be for a meeting this late in the afternoon, he bent to draw a cup of water from the cooler. The bubbles and thumps of the thing’s vacuum seal still made him smile, even after 12 years in this office; it was the little things that made life worth living, after all.</p><p>He heard the pinging chime of the front door, and he immediately set his half-filled glass aside to begin draining cool water into another one for his client. He called over his shoulder without really looking toward the “foyer,” which honestly wasn’t more than an eight-by-ten space with a few folding chairs and some kitschy art-prints on the walls.</p><p>“Ms. Thesmophoria, I’ll be right with you; please have a seat at the desk.”</p><p>“Thank you, but please don’t go to any trouble. I brought my own water.”</p><p>He nearly lost his balance as he jerked himself upright, staring at his own dumbfounded expression in the mirror over the cooler’s fading-bubbling jug.</p><p>
  <em>She….</em>
</p><p>
  <em>She doesn’t sound like she’s Mrs. Demeter’s sister’s age….</em>
</p><p>He turned warily, knowing he must seem more than crazed, but he couldn’t have believed his ears if he’d had one of his great-grandpa’s old hearing-horn things….</p><p>
  <em>Oh shit and hell and damn….</em>
</p><p>The woman wore a leaf-green sun-dress, bare shoulders tan and round and shining slightly with sweat. Bright emerald eyes glimmered at him as he stared, unable to look away as she brushed a thin-fingered hand through dark-red-brown wavy hair, thick and barely contained beneath a flower-dotted headband wrapping over a prominent widow’s peak. Hades gulped, his mouth drifting open as a road-dust-and-lavender scent permeated the air as the door finally swung fully closed behind the woman, the owner and manager of Eleusis Elegance Landscaping Company.</p><p>
  <em>She’s my age….</em>
</p><p>“Hi there. Mr. Aidoneus Kthonia, I presume?”</p><p>
  <em>Call me whatever you like; you’re the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Wait, no, focus, man!</em>
</p><p>“Yes, sorry, yes. Well, you could just call me Hades, most people do. It’s a lot less a mouthful….”</p><p>“Nah, if it’s okay, I’ll call you Aidoneus. I like the sound of it. And believe me, it’s still nothing compared to Persephone!”</p><p>“I like the sound of Persephone, too….”</p><p>He froze, still immobile by the water cooler, staring at this incredible goddess of a woman that had entered his office to go over her company’s taxes….</p><p>He just knew he wasn’t going to be able to keep cool….</p><p>
  <em>Please like puns, please like puns…. Please. Like. Puns….</em>
</p>
<hr/><p>
  <em>Huh. He’s cute. Why didn’t Mom tell me he was cute?</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Well, duh, Seph. She’s with Hestia, ain’t she? She don’t pay no attention to….</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Oh, lookit his eyes…. I’ve never seen eyes that grey! Oh, gorgeous – </em>
</p><p>
  <em>SNAP OUT OF IT, HE SAID SOMETHING!</em>
</p><p>“Whazzatnow?!”</p><p>“I said, feel free to take a seat….”</p><p>Aidoneus was bent in a half-bow, one hand extended toward the empty chair beside which Persephone was standing rooted. He gave her a shy smile as she darted around the arm of the thing and thundered onto the seat.</p><p>A soft hissing whine rose from under her butt, and her eyes shot wide-open enough that she felt her bangs fly away from her eyebrows.</p><p>He grimaced, and she nearly jumped back out of the chair to leave the building, the state, the country –</p><p>“I’m so sorry, I thought I’d switched the chairs…. Please forgive me, that one is forever causing embarrassment. I’m so sorry, I know it wasn’t you, damned chair….”</p><p>She gave a huffing laugh and bent to place her water bottle and messenger bag on the floor by her foot. “Okay, yeah, um…. Forgiven. No harm done!”</p><p>“I’ll make sure it’s tossed in the dumpster out back tonight. Its time among the living is officially worn out….”</p><p>He made to sit in his own swivel-based chair, but before he was halfway to the cushion, he lurched back up with a mumble about his own water. As her new accountant moved back to the water cooler, she took the opportunity to stare without worrying about being caught.</p><p>His black button-down was coming slightly untucked from over his right butt-cheek, and his black slacks were perfectly-tailored to his long, lean legs. He would have stood a few inches taller than her mother, which put him somewhere around six-three, and his hair was striking against the collar of his shirt: shoulder length, loose and silky-looking, it was black as night until the last six inches or so, where the shade lightened subtly into an ombre of silver-and-smoke.</p><p>She’d never seen anything like it, and she thought he looked almost like the lead-singer in a metal band, or some god of goth-dom….</p><p>Maybe a vampire….</p><p>He was pretty pale….</p><p>He finally made his way back to the desk again, both cups of water he’d filled before in his hands; he set them carefully onto the coasters at the farthest end of the tabletop from his computer, and then he was smiling softly at her as he met her eyes.</p><p>“So, Persephone…. You’re Demeter’s daughter, and you’ve come into your own with the management of Eleusis Elegance. She didn’t tell me your relation; I had honestly inferred that you were her sister, the way she spoke of you, your talents….”</p><p>Persephone snorted; she couldn’t help it. “I’ve been mistaken for many things, but never her sister!”</p><p>“Well, forgive a recluse like me. I don’t get out much; but that’s beside the point. I assume you understand how business taxes are usually handled?”</p><p>“Yes, Mother’s been training me up for a few years. She took to calling me her little pea-vine, so, just…. Why did I tell you that?!”</p><p>“If it’s any consolation, my brothers called me ‘demon-spawn’ when I started frosting and growing out my hair as a teenager.”</p><p>“Ouch. I bet that <em>accounts</em> for the black clothes, too?”</p><p>
  <em>Did you catch that, handsome thing?</em>
</p><p>
  <em>You did….</em>
</p><p>His eyebrows climbed up the cliff of his forehead, and his mouth quirked in a wry smile. There was a twinkle in his eyes, and she smiled back at him, defiant, daring him to call her on her pun.</p><p>“Well, let’s get down to business then. <em>Aloe</em> me to show you this chart here, which denotes the taxation rates and which bracket you’re most likely to fall into for last year.”</p><p>
  <em>Oh hell, that was a good one….</em>
</p><p>“I see. And do you anticipate anything terribly <em>taxing</em> I might do that could shift the bracket next year?”</p><p>“Nothing, unless you doubled your clientele or increased your number of high-value patrons to account for 55% of your workload and accounts payable. And you can stake your tomatoes on that.”</p><p>“You’re awfully <em>surety</em> of yourself.”</p><p>“Well, it’s never a good idea to put all your eggplants in one basket, but I think this is a safe beet….”</p><p>They stared at each other for a breathless moment, neither realizing how far they’d leaned across the ocean of desk between them….</p><p>
  <em>I could kiss you right now….</em>
</p><p>
  <em>….</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Would you let me…?</em>
</p>
<hr/><p>
  <em>Goddess of puns, you’re perfection itself….</em>
</p><p>
  <em>I could kiss you….</em>
</p><p>
  <em>….</em>
</p><p>
  <em>But this is a business meeting….</em>
</p><p>“Achem…. In any case, no, there’s no reason to believe you should get bumped into a higher bracket next year, unless you’re planning to completely run yourself into the ground building up business and drumming up new clients. I’d recommend you hold your ground, focus on establishing your own self as the new owner of Eleusis Elegance, and we can revisit your plans for potential growth next year. How does that sound, Persephone…?”</p><p>
  <em>Oh, no, please don’t look sad….</em>
</p><p>“That sounds like great advice, Aidoneus, thank you….”</p>
<hr/><p>The rest of the meeting went fine. He could not help but be impressed with her intuitive business sense and the hints of her bubbly personality she couldn’t seem to keep contained. He wanted so badly to ask her out, on a personal-type of outing, but his business manners were too deeply ingrained.</p><p>He tried.</p><p>Multiple times.</p><p>He just couldn’t do it….</p><p>Their meeting ended, and she gathered her bag and water bottle and walked in front of him to the door; he spotted for the first time the dainty little daisies woven-in amongst her tumbling mahogany locks. The sun was setting far across the city, glaring light blinding him as she stood silhouetted in the doorway as he held it propped open for her to pass through. It threw glinting haloes around her face as she turned back to him. She smirked, and he thought his heart stopped cold in his chest.</p><p>“I’ll calc you later, sometime, Aidoneus. You have my integers….”</p><p>She turned and flounced down the steps, her knee-length sundress-skirt swishing and dancing with the motions; she kept swaying her hips and skipping across the parking lot before she finally scrambled behind the wheel of a dirt-spattered and dulled-out boxy-framed Ford. The engine roared to life, but for all the noise, there was no smoke or soot staining the air behind the lowered tailgate as Persephone pulled sedately, competently out of the nearly-empty lot.</p><p>Aidoneus felt his hand move to clutch the black fabric over his heart as he turned back into his office. The pale-cream walls and grey carpet and black furnishings took on tones of spring-tide sunlight and summer-bright clouds as he made his way back to his desk, collapsing into his chair with a too-dreamy-for-sense sigh.</p><p>
  <em>Perfection….</em>
</p><p>
  <em>That’s my favorite pun….</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Is this fate…?</em>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>
  <em>Is it love…?</em>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I have considered expanding this: a first date, the eventual proposal, the wedding night....</p><p>If you're interested, lemme know!</p><p>As always, comments and kudos are much appreciated! They're what I stake my tomatoes on....</p></blockquote></div></div>
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